
Alex Chilton (born on December 28, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an United States songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer best known for his Top 40 hits as a lead vocalist in the 1960s for the Box Tops and for his critically acclaimed work with Big Star. Among Chilton's better known songs is "In the Street," which (in an altered and shortened version recorded by Cheap Trick) became the theme song for ''That '70s Show''. Chilton's early commercial sales success as a teen vocalist was not repeated in his subsequent years with Big Star and in his indie music solo career on small labels like Last Call Records, New Rose, Razor and Tie, Bar/None, and others, but he did draw a loyal following in the indie and alternative music fields. Chilton said in the September 1994 issue of ''Guitar Player'' that he considers himself a "musical performer, not a songwriter" and that some of his songs sound only "half-baked" to him. Nonetheless, his compositions have been recorded by a number of artists, including This Mortal Coil, The Bangles, Garbage, Kristin Hersh, Jeff Buckley, Yo La Tengo, and His Name Is Alive. The Replacements wrote the song "Alex Chilton" in his honor on their 1987''Pleased to Meet Me'' album, produced by Jim Dickinson in Memphis. ==Background and early career== With influences including Chet Baker, The Kinks, Velvet Underground, T. Rex, Sky Saxon, Cordell Jackson, blues, rhythm and blues, soul music, rockabilly, country music, jazz, and the Beatles, Alex Chilton grew up in a musical family; his father, Sidney Chilton, was a jazz musician. A local band recruited the teenager in 1966 as their lead singer after learning of the popularity of his vocal performance at a talent show at Memphis' Central High School; this band was The Devilles, later renamed Box Tops. The new group recorded with Moman and producer/songwriter Dan Penn at American Sound Studio and Muscle Shoals FAME Studios. As lead singer for the Box Tops, Chilton enjoyed at the age of 16 a number-one international hit, "The Letter." The Box Tops went on to have several other major chart hits, including "Cry Like a Baby" (1968) and "Soul Deep" (1969). Chilton occasionally contributed a song, but most of the songs the group recorded were written by top staff writers affiliated with the producers and American Sound, with Penn directing Chilton's singing. Producer Moman often preferred to have his seasoned American Sound session musicians back Chilton on recordings. While at times serving as a creative outlet for producer/writers Penn and Moman and their session players was frustrating for the group members, the young men also appreciated that they were benefiting by learning directly from Memphis music legends. Penn also did use the band members' performances on a number of the recordings on each album, including their first hit, "The Letter." Among the group members' more stressful challenges as teenage musicians on the road in a popular band with radio hits were the routine disrespect given them by adult managers, lawyers, and promoters, who conned them out of their earnings through bad contracts. By late 1969, only Chilton and guitarist Gary Talley persevered from the original group, and newer additions replaced the members who had departed. When the group arrived in London in December 1969 for their scheduled British tour, the London promoter disregarded the band's standard equipment contract provision, demanding that they use the opening act's toy drums, public address amplifiers, and broken keyboard speakers or else not play at all. The promoter assumed that the stranded young men would have no choice but comply and complete the road dates. With their manager back in the United States ignoring their phone calls requesting assistance, the band cancelled the tour in disgust, according to a 2004 article by Talley published in ''Puremusic.com''. Shortly after this incident, the group decided to disband and pursue independent careers, in early 1970. Chilton then began performing as a solo artist, maintaining a working relationship with Penn for demos. During this period he began learning guitar by studying the styles of guitarists like Stax Records great Steve Cropper, recording his own material in 1970 at Ardent Studios with local musicians like Terry Manning and Richard Rosebrough, and producing a few Southern garage rock-blues-rock local acts. His 1970 recordings and productions from that time frame were released years later in the 1980s and 1990s on albums like ''Lost Decade'' (New Rose Records) and ''1970'' (Ardent Records). ==1970s career== After a period in New York City, during which he worked on his guitar technique and singing style, in 1971 he formed the power pop Big Star group in Memphis, with Chris Bell (musician), recording at engineer John Fry's Ardent Studios, an energetic, relatively new outfit that was not a part of the established Memphis music industry and professional studio sessions scene that Chilton had left behind him. The group's innovative recordings met little commercial success but established his reputation as a creative rock singer and songwriter, when later alternative music bands like R.E.M. (band) praised the group in years to follow. During this period he also occasionally recorded with Rosebrough as a group they called The Dolby Fuckers; some of their studio experimentation was included in Big Star's ''Radio City'', including the recording of "Mod Lang." Rosebrough occasionally worked on later recordings with Chilton, including on Big Star's ''Third'' album and the 1975 solo recording ''Bach's Bottom''. Moving back to New York in 1977, Chilton performed as "Alex Chilton and the Cossacks" with a lineup that included Chris Stamey (later of The dB's) at venues like CBGB, recording an influential solo single, released in 1978: "Bangkok," backed with a cover of the Seeds' "Can't Seem to Make You Mine." This period learning from the New York CBGB scene marked the beginning of a key change for Chilton's personal musical interests away from slick, sterile pop recording standards toward a looser, more turbulent punk music performance style he viewed as more animated and energized. There he made the acquaintance of the Cramps, a fiery, theatrical group immersed in the primal beats of early rock and roll and rockabilly. He brought them to Memphis, where he produced the songs that would appear on their ''Gravest Hits'' EP and their ''Songs the Lord Taught Us'' Vinyl record. In 1979 Chilton released, in a limited edition of 500 copies, an often-criticized album called ''Like Flies on Sherbert'', produced by Chilton with Jim Dickinson at Phillips Recording and Ardent Studios, which featured his own interpretations of songs by artists as disparate as the Carter Family, Jimmy C. Newman, Ernest Tubb, and K. C. and the Sunshine Band, along with several originals. ''Sherbert'', which included backing work by Memphis musicians including Rosebrough, Memphis drummer Ross Johnson, and Lisa Aldridge, has since been reissued several times. Beginning in 1979 he also co-founded, played guitar with, and produced some albums for Tav Falco's Panther Burns, which began as an offbeat rock-and-roll group deconstruct blues, country music, and rockabilly music. ==1980s to present== He moved to New Orleans in the early 1980s, while also touring regularly with Panther Burns and occasionally as a solo artist, as documented in his poorly received 1982 solo release ''Live in London''. After a brief, six-month span of working outside music at tree-trimming and dishwashing jobs in New Orleans, he resumed playing with Panther Burns in 1983. His new association with New Orleans jazz musicians including bassist René Coman marked a period in which he began playing guitar in a less raucous style and moved toward a cooler, more-restrained approach, as heard in Panther Burns' 1984 ''Sugar Ditch Revisited'' album, produced by Jim Dickinson. Immediately upon completing the recording in mid-1984, Chilton returned his focus to his own solo career. He stopped playing regular gigs with Panther Burns and took with him the group's bassist at the time, Coman. Chilton then formed a solo trio with Coman and jazz drummer Doug Garrison, then of Memphis. The trio immediately began touring intensely and recording at Ardent Studios, releasing in 1985 an EP, ''Feudalist Tarts'', that featured his versions of songs by Carla Thomas, Slim Harpo, and Willie Tee, and releasing in 1986 ''No Sex''. The latter EP contained three originals, including the extended mood piece, "Wild Kingdom," a song highlighting Coman's jazz-oriented, improvisational bass interplay with Chilton. He included on 1987's ''High Priest'' a cover of "Raunchy," his instrumental salute to Sun Records guitarist Sid Manker, a friend of his father from whom he'd once taken a guitar lesson; this song was also a standard in his early Panther Burns repertoire. Along with four upbeat originals, ''High Priest'' also included other covers like the obscure "Nobody's Fool," a song originally written and recorded by his old mentor Dan Penn for Penn's 1973 ''Nobody's Fool'' solo album. During this period, Chilton began to frequently use in his recordings a horn section consisting of Memphis veteran jazz performers Fred Ford, Jim Spake, and Nokie Taylor to imbue the soul-oriented pieces among his repertoire with a postmodern, minimalist, jazz feel that distinguished his interpretative approach from that of a simple soul revivalist style. Chilton forged a new direction for his solo work, eschewing effects, such as his previous heavy use of reverb in his Panther Burns guitar work, instead seeking purer tones for his sonic mood palette, as he came to terms with his late father's jazz legacy. The nuances and subtleties in these interpretative stylings blending soul, country, rockabilly and pop with jazz horns were at times not appreciated by some critics more fond of his Big Star work, who found his 1980s solo work languid or lounge-like. Touring and recording as a solo artist in the late-1980s and through the 1990s with bassist Ron Easley and drummer Richard Dworkin after Coman and Garrison had departed to form The Iguanas group in New Orleans, Chilton gained a reputation for his eclectic taste in cover versions, his guitar work, and his laconic stage presence. His EP ''Black List'' contained a cover of Ronny & the Daytonas' "Little GTO," along with an original song that referenced Tammy Faye Bakker, "Guantanamerika." He also produced albums by several artists beginning in the 1980s, including the Detroit group The Gories, occasionally producing Panther Burns albums well into the 1990s. He continued recording solo albums, garnering mixed reviews, into the 2000s, with a live cd released in 2004, ''Live in Anvers''. Since the mid-1990s, he has added to his schedule concerts and recordings with the reunited Box Tops and a version of Big Star that included two members of The Posies, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. A new Big Star album with songs written by Chilton, drummer Jody Stephens, guitarist Auer, and bassist Stringfellow is due out in August 2005 on Rykodisc. ==Solo discography== *''One Day in New York'' - (Ork, 1977) *''Singer Not the Song'' (EP) - (Ork, 1977) *''Bangkok/Can't Seem to Make You Mine'' (single) - (Fun, 1978) *''Like Flies on Sherbert'' - (Peabody, 1979) *''Bach's Bottom'' - (Line, 1981) *''Live in London'' - (Aura, 1982) *''Feudalist Tarts'' (EP) - (New Rose/Big Time), 1985; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Lost Decade'' - (Fan Club, 1985) *''Document'' - (Aura, 1985) *''No Sex'' (EP) - (New Rose/Big Time, 1986; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Stuff'' - (New Rose, 1987) *''High Priest'' - (New Rose/Big Time, 1987; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Black List'' (EP) - (New Rose, 1989; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Best of Alex Chilton'' (New Rose, 1991) *''19 Years: A Collection of Alex Chilton'' - (Rhino, 1991) *''Clichés'' - (Ardent, 1994) *''A Man Called Destruction'' - (Ardent, 1995) *''1970'' - (Ardent, 1996) *''Acoustic By Candlelight'' - (Knitting Factory 1997) *''Top 30'' - (Last Call, 1997) *''Cubist Blues'', with Ben Vaughan and Alan Vega - (Discovery, 1997) *''Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy'' - (Last Call, 1999) — aka ''Set'' (Bar/None, 2000) *''Live in Anvers'' - (Last Call, 2004) ==References== * Auer, Jon (April 11, 2005). [http://www.jonauer.com/board/board_topic/1578103/88251.htm "New Posies and Big Star release...?"] ''Big Star Book''. Accessed Apr. 28, 2005. * [http://boxtops.com/btbios.htm "Box Tops Biographies."] ''Box Tops official website''. Accessed Jun. 16, 2005. * [http://boxtops.com/btfaqs.htm "Box Tops Frequently Asked Questions."] ''Box Tops official website''. Accessed Jun 16, 2005. * Johnson, Ross (February 1–7, 1996). "Bad Decisions and Busted Eardrums: an Insider's Retrospective on Tav Falco's Panther Burns, the Band That Won't Go Away." ''The Memphis Flyer''. * Koda, Cub. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifxlffe5cqo~T1 "Alex Chilton biography."] ''All Music Guide''. Accessed Dec. 1, 2004. * Kurutz, Steve [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47818DC4FAB7320C0803A45C4B772E007D755FB823E394B5DD3BA7F4B82006AF554E7868AE0A829F87DB0FD26BB580FD3CFA257FDD6623F3788EBB60045&sql=11:l2jm7i78g71r~T1 "Chips Moman."] ''All Music Guide''. Acessed Apr. 28, 2005. * Mazzoleni, Florent (2003). [http://www.spincds.com/old/alexchilton2004.html 'Alex Chilton's 'Lost Decade.'"] ''Spin Compact Discs''. Accessed Apr. 27, 2005. * Norton, Cathi. [http://www.boxtops.com/btpenn.htm "Dan Penn: a Shade-Tree Guy."] ''Box Tops website''. * [http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&musicalGroupId=7024&catalog_id=6491 "Rock City Bio."] ''Rounder Records website''. Accessed Jun. 19, 2005. * Simon, Crawdaddy. [http://www3.sympatico.ca/rasp.arsenault/Records.html "Alex Chilton Discography."] ''Crawdaddy Simon's High Priest pages''. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005. * Stern, Theresa (December 22, 1996). [http://www.perfectsoundforever.com/v/2004071/features/79 "Interview: Jody Stephens."] ''Perfect Sound Forever.'' Accessed Jun. 19, 2005. * Talley, Gary (March 2004). [http://www.puremusic.com/boxtops2.html "The Box Tops — Setting the Record Straight: a Firsthand Account."] ''Puremusic.com''. Accessed Jun. 16, 2005. ==Further reading and criticism== * Baker, Michael (July 2004). [http://www.furious.com/perfect/alexchilton2.html "The Glory and Grandeur That Is Defeat: The Music of Alex Chilton, Part 2."] ''Perfect Sound Forever''. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005. * Christgau, Robert (2000). [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=32&name=Alex+Chilton "Alex Chilton: Consumer Guide Reviews."] ''Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics''. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005. * Clark, Rick (1990). "Liner notes." ''#1 Record''/''Radio City''. Big Beat Records. * Gordon, Robert (1995). ''It Came From Memphis''. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-1045-9, p. 244. * Hogg, Brian (1990). "Liner notes." ''#1 Record''/''Radio City''. Big Beat Records. ==External links== *[http://www.lastcallrecords.com/ Last Call Records artist page] *[http://www.boxtops.com Box Tops official band website] *[http://www.bar-none.com/bios/alexchilton.html Alex Chilton Biography at Bar/None Records] *[http://zenandjuice.com/music/bigstar/ The Unofficial Big Star Homepage] *[http://www.jonauer.com/board/board_topic/1578103/80675.htm Big Star Book] *[http://www.harmone.com/bands/b/big_star.html Big Star Page at Harmonē] *[http://frontlinearts.com/bigstar/ Big Star Reference Pages] *[http://home.istar.ca/~beeman/ Judith Beeman's Back of a Car Big Star zine site] *[http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/8994/bigstar.html Jeff the Joker's Alex Chilton, Big Star & the Box Tops: Interviews & Reviews] 1950 births American songwriters Guitarists Record producers United States musicians Vocalists
I notice I can't view the photo when on a Macintosh in Internet Explorer. I can view it in Firefox though on a Mac. No problems with Windows browsers and this page. User:Bebop 04:27, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC) == About moving "critics" section I created over to Further Reading citations == All artists I know of get pans and raves. Even the best artists do, including national artists from other parts of the U.S. that I've been a fan of for the past 15 years who sometimes have had good albums raved about in some places end up complained about in other sources. There is no reason to summarize Chilton's life in a final paragraph about critics who should have their work pointed out in their own bios instead of their own paragraph here. So I moved these critic references, which I had previously helped add to, over to a Further Reading citations section. I had previously helped create the "critics" section when I added additional research, citations and subheads after someone had pulled out the only disparaging comment in a long, positive liner notes essay and placed it in this article (though that was not the thrust of the Hogg liner notes nor those of the second liner notes writer, Rick Clark, in the same album's notes), along with a sentence by Christgau that was unclear out of context it was from a review praising him and jokingly referred to irrelevant trivia about dishwashing. It's not NPOV to single an artist out for a redundant section in his bio that is not provided to other artists at wikipedia, all of whom have albums with "divided" opinons by critics. So now there is a Further Reading section, which can have additional citation entries added. This Wikipedia article does not rave about Chilton, has plenty of criticism mentioned, and there is no reason to end the story as though his life is summed up by randomly chosen, out-of-context statements by critics who all like some, but not all of his work, as with other artists; the article is already a fair overview of his career and not intended to be a review of the critics' careers. There are plenty of critics who think positively of his work as well, just as with any artist; all albums get raves and pans. In fact, a number of critics point to his work producing The Cramps as quite important, but people who focus on Big Star as all he did worth knowing about do not have NPOV on the subject of Chilton. This artist bio is already much more neutral than most and did not need the extra paragraph alluding to four writers when that's what references sections are for. (In the Big Star article I mentioned a couple of source names in passing as proof of something that another editor was confused on; names can be useful for proof but not needed here beyond Further Reading). — User:Bebop 02:11, 13 May 2005 (UTC) * I have restored this. I think it is totally legitimate (by the way, it was not my writing). In general things like this belong in articles about artists. If others lack it, the failing is there, not here. And these are hardly "randmoly chosen" critics: Gordon and Christgau probably come closer to being household words than Chilton himself. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 01:19, May 14, 2005 (UTC) ::I meant randomly chosen quotations, sorry for my awkward phrasing. Please see my detailed comments in this page's History tab entry at [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Alex_Chilton&oldid=13709670 16:36, 14 May 2005] (says 20:36 when I'm not logged in). I have removed the longer explanation for sake of space but it answers your above concerns. Below is a shorter summary. I put a lot of consideration into the edit you are concerned about and did a lot of research and came to the conclusion it was wrong to have it in there; I initiated most of the paragraph at issue as well. I don't like taking up the whole page, so please see the History tab. The article edit was not something I did without care and thought. And I have tried to make sure to incorporate the point someone initially wanted to see conveyed regarding the issue of mixed reviews (though this was mostly already in the article). Certainly I also kept the citations and separated them from others for emphasis in Further Reading. User:Bebop 20:45, 14 May 2005 (UTC) '''Summary -- Examples of where the article already makes it clear he's not universally praised without the additional paragraph being needed''': * ''"often-criticized album" — Like Flies on Sherbert'' * ''"poorly received" — Live in London'' * ''"not appreciated by those critics who thought his 1980s solo work languid or lounge-like" — 1980s material'' * ''"garnering mixed reviews" — solo albums into the 2000s'' The above examples show there are sufficient references in the article to the fact he, like most, has received mixed reviews, actually over-emphasizing it (as I erred on the side of being negative instead of positive) since most of his albums also received positive reviews including by Christgau, just as is the case with every artist, without additionally tacking another paragraph at the end hammering home once more some randomly chosen quotations and falsely implying the writers mentioned are famous for these quotes by setting the section off dramatically. Enough is enough; since we have noted his split of opinion already, citing where to read more in "Further Reading" is sufficient without additionally beginning a "split of opinion" paragraph tacked at the end. Part of editing is knowing what to remove that is excess; that paragraph, largely researched and written by me, was redundant (like my comments here). How many times does the article need to repeat there's a split of opinion, something true of all artist's reviews; the paragraph was merely repetitive of prior info. — User:Bebop 11:24, 14 May 2005 (UTC) ==guitarwork vs. guitar work== "guitar work" is the more commonly used terminology compared to "guitarwork". As evidence, I cite the following: Google search hits: ("guitarwork") = 22,100 hits ("guitar work") = 677,000 hits Dictionary.com result for "guitarwork" yeilds no result. This is largely a trivial point since readers will understand either phrasing, but I do think that we should strive to use the more common phrasings where possible. I am reverting this back to the more common usage. User:Tobycat 19:39, 14 May 2005 (UTC) *Oops, I see that the original edit I made was not changed after all. No need to revert.User:Tobycat 19:42, 14 May 2005 (UTC) ::Sorry for the confusion — I wasn't changing your edit at all; I included it and tried to indicate that by saying "added guitar work". I don't change most edits, but I do attend to items related to proper grammar, redundant comments that do not add substance, fact checking, skewed emphasis, fairness, npov concerns, and research citations -- I especially go over sentences I have added or mistakes I have previously made with a fine tooth comb. I usually try to incorporate contributions of others in some way even if it's not something I would have done myself otherwise; when I do change or remove some contribution by another, I will usually still incorporate any genuine contribution somewhere else in a story, such that the story is improved because of the person's contribution. (I had that happen in another story just today; I first thought it was a vandal, then realized it was just a sloppy but mostly genuine contribution, so I incorporated the part of it that was correct. And in the Chilton story, I made sure to keep a Further Reading section and make the mixed reviews aspect clear as a bell due to someone's interest in this aspect.) — User:Bebop 20:09, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
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Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton (born on December 28, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an United States songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer best known for his Top 40 hits as a lead vocalist in the 1960s for the Box Tops and for his critically acclaimed work with Big Star. Among Chilton's better known songs is "In the Street," which (in an altered and shortened version recorded by Cheap Trick) became the theme song for ''That '70s Show''. Chilton's early commercial sales success as a teen vocalist was not repeated in his subsequent years with Big Star and in his indie music solo career on small labels like Last Call Records, New Rose, Razor and Tie, Bar/None, and others, but he did draw a loyal following in the indie and alternative music fields. Chilton said in the September 1994 issue of ''Guitar Player'' that he considers himself a "musical performer, not a songwriter" and that some of his songs sound only "half-baked" to him. Nonetheless, his compositions have been recorded by a number of artists, including This Mortal Coil, The Bangles, Garbage, Kristin Hersh, Jeff Buckley, Yo La Tengo, and His Name Is Alive. The Replacements wrote the song "Alex Chilton" in his honor on their 1987''Pleased to Meet Me'' album, produced by Jim Dickinson in Memphis. ==Background and early career== With influences including Chet Baker, The Kinks, Velvet Underground, T. Rex, Sky Saxon, Cordell Jackson, blues, rhythm and blues, soul music, rockabilly, country music, jazz, and the Beatles, Alex Chilton grew up in a musical family; his father, Sidney Chilton, was a jazz musician. A local band recruited the teenager in 1966 as their lead singer after learning of the popularity of his vocal performance at a talent show at Memphis' Central High School; this band was The Devilles, later renamed Box Tops. The new group recorded with Moman and producer/songwriter Dan Penn at American Sound Studio and Muscle Shoals FAME Studios. As lead singer for the Box Tops, Chilton enjoyed at the age of 16 a number-one international hit, "The Letter." The Box Tops went on to have several other major chart hits, including "Cry Like a Baby" (1968) and "Soul Deep" (1969). Chilton occasionally contributed a song, but most of the songs the group recorded were written by top staff writers affiliated with the producers and American Sound, with Penn directing Chilton's singing. Producer Moman often preferred to have his seasoned American Sound session musicians back Chilton on recordings. While at times serving as a creative outlet for producer/writers Penn and Moman and their session players was frustrating for the group members, the young men also appreciated that they were benefiting by learning directly from Memphis music legends. Penn also did use the band members' performances on a number of the recordings on each album, including their first hit, "The Letter." Among the group members' more stressful challenges as teenage musicians on the road in a popular band with radio hits were the routine disrespect given them by adult managers, lawyers, and promoters, who conned them out of their earnings through bad contracts. By late 1969, only Chilton and guitarist Gary Talley persevered from the original group, and newer additions replaced the members who had departed. When the group arrived in London in December 1969 for their scheduled British tour, the London promoter disregarded the band's standard equipment contract provision, demanding that they use the opening act's toy drums, public address amplifiers, and broken keyboard speakers or else not play at all. The promoter assumed that the stranded young men would have no choice but comply and complete the road dates. With their manager back in the United States ignoring their phone calls requesting assistance, the band cancelled the tour in disgust, according to a 2004 article by Talley published in ''Puremusic.com''. Shortly after this incident, the group decided to disband and pursue independent careers, in early 1970. Chilton then began performing as a solo artist, maintaining a working relationship with Penn for demos. During this period he began learning guitar by studying the styles of guitarists like Stax Records great Steve Cropper, recording his own material in 1970 at Ardent Studios with local musicians like Terry Manning and Richard Rosebrough, and producing a few Southern garage rock-blues-rock local acts. His 1970 recordings and productions from that time frame were released years later in the 1980s and 1990s on albums like ''Lost Decade'' (New Rose Records) and ''1970'' (Ardent Records). ==1970s career== After a period in New York City, during which he worked on his guitar technique and singing style, in 1971 he formed the power pop Big Star group in Memphis, with Chris Bell (musician), recording at engineer John Fry's Ardent Studios, an energetic, relatively new outfit that was not a part of the established Memphis music industry and professional studio sessions scene that Chilton had left behind him. The group's innovative recordings met little commercial success but established his reputation as a creative rock singer and songwriter, when later alternative music bands like R.E.M. (band) praised the group in years to follow. During this period he also occasionally recorded with Rosebrough as a group they called The Dolby Fuckers; some of their studio experimentation was included in Big Star's ''Radio City'', including the recording of "Mod Lang." Rosebrough occasionally worked on later recordings with Chilton, including on Big Star's ''Third'' album and the 1975 solo recording ''Bach's Bottom''. Moving back to New York in 1977, Chilton performed as "Alex Chilton and the Cossacks" with a lineup that included Chris Stamey (later of The dB's) at venues like CBGB, recording an influential solo single, released in 1978: "Bangkok," backed with a cover of the Seeds' "Can't Seem to Make You Mine." This period learning from the New York CBGB scene marked the beginning of a key change for Chilton's personal musical interests away from slick, sterile pop recording standards toward a looser, more turbulent punk music performance style he viewed as more animated and energized. There he made the acquaintance of the Cramps, a fiery, theatrical group immersed in the primal beats of early rock and roll and rockabilly. He brought them to Memphis, where he produced the songs that would appear on their ''Gravest Hits'' EP and their ''Songs the Lord Taught Us'' Vinyl record. In 1979 Chilton released, in a limited edition of 500 copies, an often-criticized album called ''Like Flies on Sherbert'', produced by Chilton with Jim Dickinson at Phillips Recording and Ardent Studios, which featured his own interpretations of songs by artists as disparate as the Carter Family, Jimmy C. Newman, Ernest Tubb, and K. C. and the Sunshine Band, along with several originals. ''Sherbert'', which included backing work by Memphis musicians including Rosebrough, Memphis drummer Ross Johnson, and Lisa Aldridge, has since been reissued several times. Beginning in 1979 he also co-founded, played guitar with, and produced some albums for Tav Falco's Panther Burns, which began as an offbeat rock-and-roll group deconstruct blues, country music, and rockabilly music. ==1980s to present== He moved to New Orleans in the early 1980s, while also touring regularly with Panther Burns and occasionally as a solo artist, as documented in his poorly received 1982 solo release ''Live in London''. After a brief, six-month span of working outside music at tree-trimming and dishwashing jobs in New Orleans, he resumed playing with Panther Burns in 1983. His new association with New Orleans jazz musicians including bassist René Coman marked a period in which he began playing guitar in a less raucous style and moved toward a cooler, more-restrained approach, as heard in Panther Burns' 1984 ''Sugar Ditch Revisited'' album, produced by Jim Dickinson. Immediately upon completing the recording in mid-1984, Chilton returned his focus to his own solo career. He stopped playing regular gigs with Panther Burns and took with him the group's bassist at the time, Coman. Chilton then formed a solo trio with Coman and jazz drummer Doug Garrison, then of Memphis. The trio immediately began touring intensely and recording at Ardent Studios, releasing in 1985 an EP, ''Feudalist Tarts'', that featured his versions of songs by Carla Thomas, Slim Harpo, and Willie Tee, and releasing in 1986 ''No Sex''. The latter EP contained three originals, including the extended mood piece, "Wild Kingdom," a song highlighting Coman's jazz-oriented, improvisational bass interplay with Chilton. He included on 1987's ''High Priest'' a cover of "Raunchy," his instrumental salute to Sun Records guitarist Sid Manker, a friend of his father from whom he'd once taken a guitar lesson; this song was also a standard in his early Panther Burns repertoire. Along with four upbeat originals, ''High Priest'' also included other covers like the obscure "Nobody's Fool," a song originally written and recorded by his old mentor Dan Penn for Penn's 1973 ''Nobody's Fool'' solo album. During this period, Chilton began to frequently use in his recordings a horn section consisting of Memphis veteran jazz performers Fred Ford, Jim Spake, and Nokie Taylor to imbue the soul-oriented pieces among his repertoire with a postmodern, minimalist, jazz feel that distinguished his interpretative approach from that of a simple soul revivalist style. Chilton forged a new direction for his solo work, eschewing effects, such as his previous heavy use of reverb in his Panther Burns guitar work, instead seeking purer tones for his sonic mood palette, as he came to terms with his late father's jazz legacy. The nuances and subtleties in these interpretative stylings blending soul, country, rockabilly and pop with jazz horns were at times not appreciated by some critics more fond of his Big Star work, who found his 1980s solo work languid or lounge-like. Touring and recording as a solo artist in the late-1980s and through the 1990s with bassist Ron Easley and drummer Richard Dworkin after Coman and Garrison had departed to form The Iguanas group in New Orleans, Chilton gained a reputation for his eclectic taste in cover versions, his guitar work, and his laconic stage presence. His EP ''Black List'' contained a cover of Ronny & the Daytonas' "Little GTO," along with an original song that referenced Tammy Faye Bakker, "Guantanamerika." He also produced albums by several artists beginning in the 1980s, including the Detroit group The Gories, occasionally producing Panther Burns albums well into the 1990s. He continued recording solo albums, garnering mixed reviews, into the 2000s, with a live cd released in 2004, ''Live in Anvers''. Since the mid-1990s, he has added to his schedule concerts and recordings with the reunited Box Tops and a version of Big Star that included two members of The Posies, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. A new Big Star album with songs written by Chilton, drummer Jody Stephens, guitarist Auer, and bassist Stringfellow is due out in August 2005 on Rykodisc. ==Solo discography== *''One Day in New York'' - (Ork, 1977) *''Singer Not the Song'' (EP) - (Ork, 1977) *''Bangkok/Can't Seem to Make You Mine'' (single) - (Fun, 1978) *''Like Flies on Sherbert'' - (Peabody, 1979) *''Bach's Bottom'' - (Line, 1981) *''Live in London'' - (Aura, 1982) *''Feudalist Tarts'' (EP) - (New Rose/Big Time), 1985; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Lost Decade'' - (Fan Club, 1985) *''Document'' - (Aura, 1985) *''No Sex'' (EP) - (New Rose/Big Time, 1986; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Stuff'' - (New Rose, 1987) *''High Priest'' - (New Rose/Big Time, 1987; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Black List'' (EP) - (New Rose, 1989; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie) *''Best of Alex Chilton'' (New Rose, 1991) *''19 Years: A Collection of Alex Chilton'' - (Rhino, 1991) *''Clichés'' - (Ardent, 1994) *''A Man Called Destruction'' - (Ardent, 1995) *''1970'' - (Ardent, 1996) *''Acoustic By Candlelight'' - (Knitting Factory 1997) *''Top 30'' - (Last Call, 1997) *''Cubist Blues'', with Ben Vaughan and Alan Vega - (Discovery, 1997) *''Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy'' - (Last Call, 1999) — aka ''Set'' (Bar/None, 2000) *''Live in Anvers'' - (Last Call, 2004) ==References== * Auer, Jon (April 11, 2005). [http://www.jonauer.com/board/board_topic/1578103/88251.htm "New Posies and Big Star release...?"] ''Big Star Book''. Accessed Apr. 28, 2005. * [http://boxtops.com/btbios.htm "Box Tops Biographies."] ''Box Tops official website''. Accessed Jun. 16, 2005. * [http://boxtops.com/btfaqs.htm "Box Tops Frequently Asked Questions."] ''Box Tops official website''. Accessed Jun 16, 2005. * Johnson, Ross (February 1–7, 1996). "Bad Decisions and Busted Eardrums: an Insider's Retrospective on Tav Falco's Panther Burns, the Band That Won't Go Away." ''The Memphis Flyer''. * Koda, Cub. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifxlffe5cqo~T1 "Alex Chilton biography."] ''All Music Guide''. Accessed Dec. 1, 2004. * Kurutz, Steve [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47818DC4FAB7320C0803A45C4B772E007D755FB823E394B5DD3BA7F4B82006AF554E7868AE0A829F87DB0FD26BB580FD3CFA257FDD6623F3788EBB60045&sql=11:l2jm7i78g71r~T1 "Chips Moman."] ''All Music Guide''. Acessed Apr. 28, 2005. * Mazzoleni, Florent (2003). [http://www.spincds.com/old/alexchilton2004.html 'Alex Chilton's 'Lost Decade.'"] ''Spin Compact Discs''. Accessed Apr. 27, 2005. * Norton, Cathi. [http://www.boxtops.com/btpenn.htm "Dan Penn: a Shade-Tree Guy."] ''Box Tops website''. * [http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&musicalGroupId=7024&catalog_id=6491 "Rock City Bio."] ''Rounder Records website''. Accessed Jun. 19, 2005. * Simon, Crawdaddy. [http://www3.sympatico.ca/rasp.arsenault/Records.html "Alex Chilton Discography."] ''Crawdaddy Simon's High Priest pages''. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005. * Stern, Theresa (December 22, 1996). [http://www.perfectsoundforever.com/v/2004071/features/79 "Interview: Jody Stephens."] ''Perfect Sound Forever.'' Accessed Jun. 19, 2005. * Talley, Gary (March 2004). [http://www.puremusic.com/boxtops2.html "The Box Tops — Setting the Record Straight: a Firsthand Account."] ''Puremusic.com''. Accessed Jun. 16, 2005. ==Further reading and criticism== * Baker, Michael (July 2004). [http://www.furious.com/perfect/alexchilton2.html "The Glory and Grandeur That Is Defeat: The Music of Alex Chilton, Part 2."] ''Perfect Sound Forever''. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005. * Christgau, Robert (2000). [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=32&name=Alex+Chilton "Alex Chilton: Consumer Guide Reviews."] ''Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics''. Accessed Apr. 26, 2005. * Clark, Rick (1990). "Liner notes." ''#1 Record''/''Radio City''. Big Beat Records. * Gordon, Robert (1995). ''It Came From Memphis''. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-1045-9, p. 244. * Hogg, Brian (1990). "Liner notes." ''#1 Record''/''Radio City''. Big Beat Records. ==External links== *[http://www.lastcallrecords.com/ Last Call Records artist page] *[http://www.boxtops.com Box Tops official band website] *[http://www.bar-none.com/bios/alexchilton.html Alex Chilton Biography at Bar/None Records] *[http://zenandjuice.com/music/bigstar/ The Unofficial Big Star Homepage] *[http://www.jonauer.com/board/board_topic/1578103/80675.htm Big Star Book] *[http://www.harmone.com/bands/b/big_star.html Big Star Page at Harmonē] *[http://frontlinearts.com/bigstar/ Big Star Reference Pages] *[http://home.istar.ca/~beeman/ Judith Beeman's Back of a Car Big Star zine site] *[http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/8994/bigstar.html Jeff the Joker's Alex Chilton, Big Star & the Box Tops: Interviews & Reviews] 1950 births American songwriters Guitarists Record producers United States musicians Vocalists
Alex Chilton
I notice I can't view the photo when on a Macintosh in Internet Explorer. I can view it in Firefox though on a Mac. No problems with Windows browsers and this page. User:Bebop 04:27, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC) == About moving "critics" section I created over to Further Reading citations == All artists I know of get pans and raves. Even the best artists do, including national artists from other parts of the U.S. that I've been a fan of for the past 15 years who sometimes have had good albums raved about in some places end up complained about in other sources. There is no reason to summarize Chilton's life in a final paragraph about critics who should have their work pointed out in their own bios instead of their own paragraph here. So I moved these critic references, which I had previously helped add to, over to a Further Reading citations section. I had previously helped create the "critics" section when I added additional research, citations and subheads after someone had pulled out the only disparaging comment in a long, positive liner notes essay and placed it in this article (though that was not the thrust of the Hogg liner notes nor those of the second liner notes writer, Rick Clark, in the same album's notes), along with a sentence by Christgau that was unclear out of context it was from a review praising him and jokingly referred to irrelevant trivia about dishwashing. It's not NPOV to single an artist out for a redundant section in his bio that is not provided to other artists at wikipedia, all of whom have albums with "divided" opinons by critics. So now there is a Further Reading section, which can have additional citation entries added. This Wikipedia article does not rave about Chilton, has plenty of criticism mentioned, and there is no reason to end the story as though his life is summed up by randomly chosen, out-of-context statements by critics who all like some, but not all of his work, as with other artists; the article is already a fair overview of his career and not intended to be a review of the critics' careers. There are plenty of critics who think positively of his work as well, just as with any artist; all albums get raves and pans. In fact, a number of critics point to his work producing The Cramps as quite important, but people who focus on Big Star as all he did worth knowing about do not have NPOV on the subject of Chilton. This artist bio is already much more neutral than most and did not need the extra paragraph alluding to four writers when that's what references sections are for. (In the Big Star article I mentioned a couple of source names in passing as proof of something that another editor was confused on; names can be useful for proof but not needed here beyond Further Reading). — User:Bebop 02:11, 13 May 2005 (UTC) * I have restored this. I think it is totally legitimate (by the way, it was not my writing). In general things like this belong in articles about artists. If others lack it, the failing is there, not here. And these are hardly "randmoly chosen" critics: Gordon and Christgau probably come closer to being household words than Chilton himself. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 01:19, May 14, 2005 (UTC) ::I meant randomly chosen quotations, sorry for my awkward phrasing. Please see my detailed comments in this page's History tab entry at [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Alex_Chilton&oldid=13709670 16:36, 14 May 2005] (says 20:36 when I'm not logged in). I have removed the longer explanation for sake of space but it answers your above concerns. Below is a shorter summary. I put a lot of consideration into the edit you are concerned about and did a lot of research and came to the conclusion it was wrong to have it in there; I initiated most of the paragraph at issue as well. I don't like taking up the whole page, so please see the History tab. The article edit was not something I did without care and thought. And I have tried to make sure to incorporate the point someone initially wanted to see conveyed regarding the issue of mixed reviews (though this was mostly already in the article). Certainly I also kept the citations and separated them from others for emphasis in Further Reading. User:Bebop 20:45, 14 May 2005 (UTC) '''Summary -- Examples of where the article already makes it clear he's not universally praised without the additional paragraph being needed''': * ''"often-criticized album" — Like Flies on Sherbert'' * ''"poorly received" — Live in London'' * ''"not appreciated by those critics who thought his 1980s solo work languid or lounge-like" — 1980s material'' * ''"garnering mixed reviews" — solo albums into the 2000s'' The above examples show there are sufficient references in the article to the fact he, like most, has received mixed reviews, actually over-emphasizing it (as I erred on the side of being negative instead of positive) since most of his albums also received positive reviews including by Christgau, just as is the case with every artist, without additionally tacking another paragraph at the end hammering home once more some randomly chosen quotations and falsely implying the writers mentioned are famous for these quotes by setting the section off dramatically. Enough is enough; since we have noted his split of opinion already, citing where to read more in "Further Reading" is sufficient without additionally beginning a "split of opinion" paragraph tacked at the end. Part of editing is knowing what to remove that is excess; that paragraph, largely researched and written by me, was redundant (like my comments here). How many times does the article need to repeat there's a split of opinion, something true of all artist's reviews; the paragraph was merely repetitive of prior info. — User:Bebop 11:24, 14 May 2005 (UTC) ==guitarwork vs. guitar work== "guitar work" is the more commonly used terminology compared to "guitarwork". As evidence, I cite the following: Google search hits: ("guitarwork") = 22,100 hits ("guitar work") = 677,000 hits Dictionary.com result for "guitarwork" yeilds no result. This is largely a trivial point since readers will understand either phrasing, but I do think that we should strive to use the more common phrasings where possible. I am reverting this back to the more common usage. User:Tobycat 19:39, 14 May 2005 (UTC) *Oops, I see that the original edit I made was not changed after all. No need to revert.User:Tobycat 19:42, 14 May 2005 (UTC) ::Sorry for the confusion — I wasn't changing your edit at all; I included it and tried to indicate that by saying "added guitar work". I don't change most edits, but I do attend to items related to proper grammar, redundant comments that do not add substance, fact checking, skewed emphasis, fairness, npov concerns, and research citations -- I especially go over sentences I have added or mistakes I have previously made with a fine tooth comb. I usually try to incorporate contributions of others in some way even if it's not something I would have done myself otherwise; when I do change or remove some contribution by another, I will usually still incorporate any genuine contribution somewhere else in a story, such that the story is improved because of the person's contribution. (I had that happen in another story just today; I first thought it was a vandal, then realized it was just a sloppy but mostly genuine contribution, so I incorporated the part of it that was correct. And in the Chilton story, I made sure to keep a Further Reading section and make the mixed reviews aspect clear as a bell due to someone's interest in this aspect.) — User:Bebop 20:09, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
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